Temporary Sunlight
by BregoArodShadowfax
Summary: Sanji had always believed that Devil Fruits were just a children's tale. That is, until an unexpected circumstance throws him into the middle of a world where these supposed myths become all too real. AU, eventual ZoSan.


**Title:** Temporary Sunlight  
**Author:**AoiTsukikage  
**Rating:** PG-13 for now, eventual NC-17  
**Characters/Pairing: **ZoSan, other secondary pairings  
**Chapter:** 1/?  
**Word Count:** 3452  
**Summary:** Sanji had always believed that Devil Fruits were just a children's tale. That is, until an unexpected circumstance throws him into the middle of a world where these supposed myths become all too real. AU, eventual ZoSan.  
**Spoilers: **For recent-ish chapters

**Chapter One**

"So, whose crew are you on, anyway?"

Sanji stopped in the middle of the dining room, turning his head to look at the man who'd spoken. He was leaning back in his chair, legs crossed and booted feet hovering dangerously close to Zeff's pristine white tablecloth. He was probably Sanji's age, maybe a tiny bit older, with a well-muscled frame and a cocky smirk adorning his freckled face. The most notable thing about him was probably his hat, a garish orange mock-up of a cowboy hat with discs on the front that kind of looked like those drama masks he'd seen back home.

"Crew?" he asked suspiciously, because while he hadn't been in this place long, he didn't get the impression there was much here that was different from where he'd come from. Yes, it was an island and he knew that sometimes island communities kind of adapted their own way of life, but even for an island it was sizeable.

"Shit, you really _are _an outsider," the man sat up, instantly alert. "Fuck, okay, this is good," he seemed to be talking to himself but Sanji sighed and leaned over.

"Can I get you anything else, _sir, _or are you content to spout nonsense all night?" he quirked a curled eyebrow and the man barked a laugh, suddenly jovial.

"Nah, I'm good. I'd probably eat you out of house and home if I really got going, but hey," he paused, raising a hand. "When your shift's over…come find me outside, okay? I…you're gonna think I'm crazy, but I've gotta talk to you."

Sanji didn't bother telling him that he already _thought _the customer was crazy, but well, there was no harm in just _meeting, _he supposed. "Yeah, whatever, I'm off in a couple of hours."

"Cool. I'll be…" the man stopped mid-sentence and his eyes rolled back in his head, falling forward and barely missing the plate of food with his face. Sanji was momentarily panicked before he heard him snoring softly, dead asleep, and he sighed and looked skyward for assistance because he was _not _dealing with this crap his first week.

There was, however, something about the man that gave him pause, and he felt a little guilty doing it but a quick frisk to the back pocket of his cargo shorts turned up a wallet, Sanji quickly pocketing what the meal was worth and maybe an extra generous tip because of what he'd no doubt have to deal with later. He replaced the wallet, the other man still sleeping, and retreated to the kitchen.

000

Two hours later, he was pulling his trench-coat tight around his body and slipping out the back door, telling Zeff he'd meet him at home in a bit (the old geezer had ranted and complained but really, Sanji was an adult so he was hardly going to listen him anymore). His instincts, as it turned out, had been good, because the next time he'd gone to check the floor the mystery man had been gone with no money left on the table.

_Time to find Mr. Dine-and-Dash, _he thought with a wry grin, peering around the corner and seeing the man himself leaning back against the building. He had what looked like a piece of straw in his mouth and was chewing on it thoughtfully, taking it out when he saw Sanji.

"Hey, you made it! Let's go somewhere we can talk," he pointed to a rather secluded park across the way that was, thankfully, well-lit so Sanji didn't feel threatened making his way there. They sat down on a bench, the other man all casual ease and that smirk back on his face, and Sanji cleared his throat.

"So. You gonna explain what that was?"

"Yeah, in a minute. First things first, though: My name's Ace. Ace D. Portgas," he added, and Sanji shook the hand he offered.

"Sanji Blackleg," he said slowly, seeing Ace's eyes narrow. "So what's this about crews and…"

"Look, you're an outsider and truth be told, we don't _get _outsiders here. We have people that have lived here forever, and sometimes they leave, but they never get far. It's kind of a different world than what you're probably used to," he chuckled dryly and Sanji leaned forward.

"You mean, we're trapped here?"

"Nah, 's not so bad. I just can't figure out how you got in, or where ol' Red-leg Zeff came from after all this time. But I can guess that the government found him somehow and…well, let's just say they're pretty cruel about the ways they persuade people to return," he grimaced and Sanji looked down at his knees, feeling a little apprehensive because Zeff had literally closed down their restaurant and told him they were moving overnight.

So as crazy as it was, Ace's story didn't sound made-up, especially since Zeff wasn't the kind of guy to _ever _do things impulsively. And if…

"Well, um, I think I was born here, so…" he shrugged. "I mean, I don't remember who my parents were, but I can…we were on a boat and it got…wrecked, somehow, I…" he looked up to Ace staring at him in shock. "What?"

"You got out!" he hissed. "Fuck, man, you got _out _and you were out there for _years, _how the hell…"

"Our boat got destroyed. I just remember feeling like I was going to drown, and then Zeff…must have felt sorry for me or something; he lost his leg in the explosion but we ended up on this tiny spit of land. We were there for…fuck, almost two months, living off of what we could until a boat came…"

"A boat from the mainland," Ace guessed, nodding. "So they took you over there thinking you were just shipwrecked, the government here assumed everybody that was trying to flee was killed, and forgot about you until…"

"Well, um, Zeff's restaurant got a write-up in the national newspaper…"

"Yeah, that'd do it," Ace looked thoughtful and Sanji had a momentarily flash of panic that he'd just revealed his life story to a total stranger, although with the way that conversation had been going it would have been dragged out of him eventually and truth be told, he was still a little in shock over the whole thing. "So you had no idea?"

"None. Zeff just said he'd gotten a great opportunity to start a restaurant here and, well, here we are," he spread his arms, tucking his hands backs into his sides when the cool evening breeze whistled by them. "So now you know that I'm not _really _an outsider, I think you owe me an explanation as to why you suddenly got so interested in me. Nobody's barely looked at me twice since we got here and I thought people just kept to themselves."

"Some do, but most of us…well, let's just say there's a lot of groups around, and if you're not part of any of them, you're fucked. The government's basically running a giant cover-up operation that the rest of the world can't know about, which is why deserters get taken care of," he said darkly, and Sanji shivered.

"Covering up what? I haven't seen anything weird since I got here…"

"Yeah, 'cuz people think you're an outsider, and you kinda are," Ace pointed out, Sanji shrugging his shoulders and lighting up a cigarette as Ace looked at him appraisingly. "Anyway, you ever heard of Devil Fruits?"

"They're just a story," Sanji said confidently, because the world had been speculating about them for a long time but there'd never been any proof and really, it was ridiculous to think something like that existed.

Only in fairy-tales and novels.

"Pretty good story, though," Ace leaned back and looked up at the sky. "But wouldn't you think that, if they were real, the world would be full of people trying to find them and sell them for profit? Killing each other for the most desirable ones? It would be chaos," he mused, and Sanji had to admit that, yeah, if these things existed (which they didn't), keeping them secret would probably be the top priority.

"Yeah, probably."

"And wouldn't you think that, if they did exist, the place where they were from would do all they could to keep that secret from getting out?" he pressed, and Sanji narrowed his eyes, not liking where this was going.

"Presumably."

"So, Sanji Blackleg. You escape from an island, you make a life for yourself somewhere else, your foster-father gets threatened to come back to this island or-else, an island where outsiders are killed just as fast as people trying to leave, and yet the government is allowing you to walk around freely. Doesn't that strike you as being a bit…strange?" he asked, moving closer, and Sanji can feel heat literally pouring off of his body, the smell of ash and brimstone surrounding him in a choking haze that made it hard to breathe. He pulled the cigarette from his mouth and coughed, heart beating a little too rapidly, and wondered if he could get away with smashing his foot through Ace's chest even in this position.

"Wh-what are you saying?"

"I'm _say_ing," he sing-songed, "that you belong to this island, and the reason we're so tight-lipped about anybody coming or going is that, you know, those Devil Fruits?" he grinned and held out his hand, a fireball flaring to life in the middle of it as Sanji let out a yelp he'd later deny. The flames licked over Ace's hand and up his arm, his body turning to fire in front of Sanji's eyes before it fizzled out in a blast of hot air. "They're real," he finished, snapping his fingers and re-lighting Sanji's cigarette as the man looked down in surprise.

"Fuck, I'm hallucinating," Sanji croaked and Ace laughed.

"Nah, I can only imagine. But you could see why this getting out would be a bad idea. Here everybody's grown up with it so nobody really thinks about it as anything other than luck for the people that find them, and sure people look for them out in the wilderness, but the government's firm enough to keep it under control. But trying to extend that control to a bigger area, billions of people, especially ones that suddenly realized this power existed and had never seen it before?"

"Yeah. Not good," Sanji swallowed, leaning forward and trying to get his breathing under control because this was _insane. _

"Sorry to dump this all on you, but we had to get to you first. You see, nobody like you has ever showed up before, and everybody's gonna be trying to claim you so we've gotta make sure you're on the right side," he threw an arm around Sanji's shoulders and Sanji looked over at him.

"Side…?"

"Well, you're either with the government, or you're against them, or you're looking out for yourself, or you're like us, me and my brother and the people we're trying to recruit. We're not really on anybody's side, per-se, but there's…things happening that are gonna be really, really bad if they go through. In a way this place is like a safe-house, because who knows what would happen if this gets out. I mean, either people would lock us up and look at us like zoo animals, or do experiments on us, or just kill us outright because it's not _normal," _he stressed and Sanji admitted that, yeah, he was probably right. "Obviously it's not a perfect system since, y'know, I think people should be allowed to leave if they want and the fear of judicial retribution if somebody spills the beans would be enough to keep them quiet, but it's better than the alternative," he looks tired and Sanji can't blame him, because while to him it looks like a prison he could see why, to somebody like Ace, having a place were his abilities were commonplace was probably a blessing. "But that's…I mean, the government's pretty corrupt and the group that's trying to take them down, the Revolutionaries, they're probably not as…merciless, but the real problem right now is…" he stopped, looking around furtively even though Sanji couldn't see anything.

"Ace?" he asked quietly and Ace shook his head.

"Look, it's dangerous to talk out in public. Here," he scribbled out an address and passed it to Sanji, who looked it. "But, I don't know if you've tried, but didn't you wonder why you can't call anybody from back home?"

"I'd just assumed bad reception," he laughed softly, thinking that if this were true than all of his friends back home…he'd never be able to contact them again. Not that he'd had that many, since he'd always kind of kept to himself, but still…

"Yeah, well, more like blocked reception. Anything that could possibly get to the world outside is totally cut off," he shrugged. "But like I said, I grew up here, I'm used to it, and while there are things I'd change, I think the ideas are good. Except, of course, for the thing we're not speaking of," he winked and pointed to the piece of paper. "Come to that address tomorrow night. It's a safe hangout spot and you'll meet some of my friends," he looked genuine and Sanji nodded, pocketing the paper and trying to decide if he really _was _going crazy but the problem was, everything Ace was saying made sense based on what he'd observed since he came to the island.

"So…tomorrow night?" he questioned, and Ace nodded.

"Yeah. You're taking this all pretty well, but I guess if you lived here for a while before your parents tried to escape maybe you're pulling up memories from back then," he shrugged, and Sanji was pretty sure it didn't work that way but regardless, he was a sceptic by nature and for some reason he believed every word Ace spoke so maybe it was something like that.

"I think I'm processing," he replied, Ace clapping his knee. He heard a sudden displacement of air, like a giant bird or something flying by, and a streak of brilliant blue flashed across his vision, blinding him momentarily.

When he stopped seeing spots he gaped at the…was that even a _bird?..._that had landed in front of them, all blue and yellow flames, and in front of his eyes the majestic creature morphed into a rather normal-looking man, feathers of flame disappearing and talons turning back into human feet.

"Trouble?" Ace looked concerned.

"Nah, 's been a quiet night," the man drawled, sounding bored as he looked up into the treetops. "Too quiet, lately, if you ask me," he muttered under his breath, eyes focusing on Sanji. "Just checking to see how you and our little enigma here are doing," he set a hand on his hip and grinned and Sanji felt a little more at ease.

"Maah, not bad. Turns out he _was _born here, but he doesn't remember much of it so you probably gave him a fucking heart attack swooping in like that," Ace reached out and smacked the man's shoulder playfully. "Anyhow, that address, tomorrow night."

"I'll be there," Sanji promised.

"C'mon, Marco," Ace said to the other man, who gave Sanji an appraising look before morphing again, and Sanji watched in the same shocked awe when Ace leapt onto the bird's back, body disappearing in a rush of orange and red flame even as the bird…phoenix, maybe?...flew off into the night sky, seemingly unfazed by the weight on its back (did Ace weigh anything at all when he was fire like that? How exactly did that affect the body, anyway?). Sanji realized with a start that he was doing _exactly _what people from the outside world would do if they found out, looking at Ace like he was some experiment or anomaly, and decided that he'd really have to stop that.

000

"So how long were you gonna keep this from me, shitty old man?" Sanji asked later that night, walking in on Zeff poring over the newspaper (the only newspaper that seemed to exist on this island, Sanji realized, and that was probably deliberate because while it seemed like information from the outside world could get in, nothing was getting out).

"Keep what, Eggplant?" the old man grunted, not looking up.

"That Devil Fruits are real. That this island is some…some safe-haven for people that have them or people that know about them. That the reason the ship we were on was attacked was because my parents were trying to escape with me. That somehow the government here found you again and probably threatened you to come back," he blurted out, and Zeff glanced upward.

"I was afraid of this."

"You were afraid of me finding out on an island where probably half the people have weird powers? What if a giant flaming bird just landed in front of me and morphed into a person?" he meant to sound hypothetical but from the look on Zeff's face he hadn't accomplished that. "Look, I know you think I need protecting or something even though I'm twenty-two, but knowing that the reason we had to move suddenly was because there are people that would have killed us otherwise is…kind of important," he sighed, not really mad at Zeff because honestly if he was in the older man's shoes he'd have no idea where to start with an explanation, either.

"You're right. And I was going to have to tell you eventually, but it looks like Whitebeard's boys beat me to it. I'm assuming the giant flaming bird wasn't just something you pulled out of your ass," he folded up the paper and Sanji huffed a quiet laugh.

"No. But yeah, one of them was at the restaurant tonight and told me a little about how the island works, and he gave me this address for tomorrow night, but…" he shrugged and pulled out a cigarette, ignoring Zeff's grumbling about smoking in the kitchen because he damn well needed one right about now.

"What did he tell you?"

"Just that…if you're here, you're either with the government, or against them, or kind of doing your own thing. And obviously the first two are both pretty radical stances so…"

"Pirates," Zeff replied and Sanji sat up straighter.

"What?"

"Don't your ears work, Eggplant? The people who aren't part of the government or the Revolutionary Army, they're called pirates. They're not real pirates, of course, but that's what I was before I snuck aboard that ship, and honestly, I wasn't a nice man back then. So maybe you've done me some good after all," he said and Sanji bristled a little.

"More than just 'some good'," he protested, even though he knew Zeff just said things like that to get a rise out of him and, well, it usually worked.

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, if you saw the bird, that's Whitebeard's second-in-command. And while the pirates haven't really had a leader since before you were born, they all pretty much do their own thing, but Whitebeard's been around the longest and is well-respected, and he spends his time trying to keep people safe instead of causing trouble so it's pretty safe to assume his men aren't the worst people you could be associating with," he looked grumpy, still, but that was normal for him.

"So should I go tomorrow?"

"If you want. I mean, you're so stubborn that anything I say to you you'll ignore," he mumbled and Sanji grinned around his cigarette because, yeah, he would. "I have to lay low because the government already went easy on me when they could have just killed me, but I guess having a good restaurant is a priority over executing a runaway, which is lucky for me."

"Do they know that I'm…from here?" Sanji asked, and Zeff nodded.

"Yeah, that pretty much had to come out or else you wouldn't've been allowed to come back. But that's about all they know, so you should be free to hang out with whoever you want," he waved a hand dismissively and Sanji felt a little touched by what the old man had sacrificed to keep them both safe, not that he'd ever say it out loud.

"So," Sanji paused, because Zeff was in a rather talkative mood tonight, but even so he didn't want to push too hard. "You know…I mean, this bird guy…"

"Marco the Phoenix, yeah. I should have guessed he'd still be around," Zeff chuckled and Sanji blinked.

"He can't be much more than ten years older than me…"

"Phoenix fruit, boy. Regeneration. I dunno if it's unlimited but that man is damn near invincible. And that's one of the reasons this place needs to stay secret…"

"Yeah. Fuck. If people knew there was a _fruit _that make you immortal it wouldn't be good," he sighed and buried his head in his hands, scrubbing his fingers through his golden hair. "Well, I'll be careful, old geezer. Don't worry about me," he stood up, nodding to himself and going to make a cup of tea while Zeff laughed.

"Like I would, shitty Eggplant. One less thing for me to concern myself with if you do something stupid," he retorted, as acidic as ever, and Sanji smiled down into the steeping tea. Zeff might not show his love in conventional ways, and hell, it's not like he ever treated the man with any outward respect, but they were all each other had for so long and he doesn't care if they aren't blood-related because Zeff's his real father in all the ways that count.

"Is there…anything else I should know?" he asked, and Zeff shrugged.

"Damned if I know, kid. I'm assuming things haven't changed much here in the last fifteen years or so, but you'll get a better read on that tomorrow," he grunted and stood up, his fake leg thumping on the floor, and headed off toward his bedroom without saying anything else.

Sanji took the steeper out of his tea, putting it in the sink to clean up later, and took a sip of the heated liquid.

It did wonders to calm him down. Yes, everything that was happening was incredible and _insane, _but well, there had always been a part of him that thought normal life was too boring anyway.

And really, he didn't think he'd have anything to complain about here as far as 'boring' went.

**Notes:**

**1. **So, yes, this is my new ZoSan fic (or, it'll be that eventually, but Zoro shows up in the next chapter so it's not too long before they meet!). I don't know where this idea came from, exactly, but I think it stemmed from wanting to write an AU environment where Devil Fruits still existed instead of going completely modern!AU. So the world overall in this fic can kind of be thought of as modern-esque but with the technological limitations the actual One Piece world has, if that makes any sense.

**2. **Feedback is always appreciated, and I have a bit more of this fic written although I have the ideas laid out for most it; it just depends on how quickly I can write but hopefully there won't be too much time between updates!

**3. **The title of this song comes from a line in the song "Shake" by Walk Off The Earth.

**4. **If you want to find me on tumblr, my One Piece blog is at kikokus dot tumblr dot com, so please feel free to come talk to me over there as well :)


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